We continue the series of posts “How to set up VPN on your device” with setting up a VPN on a Mac OS. Read also about Hot to Set Up VPN on Windows. VPN makes your online surfing secure and anonymous. It is also used as a method for connecting to working networks. Developers usually use VPNs to have permanent access to services which require static IP addresses.

Today we will go over, in detail, the VPN connection to our VPN server by using the L2TP/IPsec VPN Client which is built-in on the Mac OS X operating system.

In this set of instructions, the screenshots are taken from the Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Other versions of Mac OS X have similar configurations, however, there might be minor differences in UIs. These screenshots are from the English version of Mac OS X. If you use another language, you can still configure it easily by referring to the following instructions.

Initial configuration (done only once)

Click the network icon on the top-right side of the Mac screen. Click “Open Network Preferences…” in the menu.

Click the “+” button on the network configuration screen.

Select “VPN” as “Interface”, “L2TP over IPsec” as “VPN Type” and click the “Create” button.

A new L2TP VPN configuration will be created and the configuration screen will appear.

On this screen, you have to specify either the hostname or the IP address of the destination VPN Server. Server address: privatoria.net

After you have specified the “Server Address”, input the user-name in the “Account Name” field, which is next to the “Server Address” field. Next, click the “Authentication Settings…” button.

The authentication screen will appear. Input your current Privatoria password in the “Password” field. Specify the pre-shared key also in the “Shared Secret” field. After you input them, click the “OK” button. Shared secret: vpn

After clicking “OK”, you will be returned to the previous screen. Check the “Show VPN status in menu bar” and click the “Advanced…” button.

The advanced settings will appear. Check the “Send all traffic over VPN connection” and click the “OK” button. On the VPN connection settings screen, click the “Connect” button to start the VPN connection.

Start a VPN connection

You can start a new VPN connection by clicking the “Connect” button at any time. You can also initiate a VPN connection by clicking the VPN icon on the menu bar. After the VPN connection is established, the VPN connection setting screen “Status” will read “Connected”. Your private IP address on the VPN and the connection duration time will be displayed on the screen.

Enjoy VPN communication

While the VPN is established, all communications will be relayed via the VPN Server.

If you have problems with the VPN setup using a WiFi router, you should check out the following options:

· Go to Router settings

· Choose Security option

· Open VPN tab

· Make sure that the following buttons aren’t turned off: L2TP Passthrough and IPsec Passthrough

· If they are turned off; turn them on, save the changes and reboot the router.

what a coincidence, I also write a blog on the same topic Setup VPN on MAC at vpnranks. But in my blog I give some other steps and that steps work well for me and for my readers. I also try these steps too and they are working good . I am a little confuse about it.Can you please check my blog and let me know why two different ways result the same?